White House says looking to resolve lack of Social Security increase

President Barack Obama is concerned about the “unintended” consequence of a Social Security formula that will keep nearly 65 million older Americans from getting an increase in their benefits next year, the White House said on Thursday.

“The president is aware of this, frankly, unintended policy consequence resulting from the formula for calculating cost-of-living adjustments,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. “There have been discussions that the administration has had with members of Congress about this issue and about our interest in trying to resolve it.”

Earnest said that to allow members of Congress to negotiate the U.S. budget in private he would not publicly give details on discussions about changing the formula for increases, which is linked to an inflation measure that currently shows consumer prices are flat.